BootsnAll Travel Community

Does anyone know anything about the American TESOL Institute? They have a certification program happening in Thailand in May with 4 months of guaranteed paid work afterwards. Their website www.justtefl.com looks reputable, but I just wanted to know if anyone has or knows of anyone who has had experience with them.

New places pop up all the time, make sure it has 100 hours, plus about 6 of real teaching, also ask if you can get the emails of former participants.

Is there a program that will certify you to teach abroad AND in the US? I think they're different certifications (TEFL and TESOL?) and didn't know if either was sufficient to teach English both in the US and abroad. Anyone know?

TEFL and TESOL are not really two alternatives of one certification - they can have a bunch of meanings which I am too lazy to go into at the moment.

I have a CELTA and experience teaching in Europe and have also worked in the US - the four-week courses (and sometimes just being a native speaker) usually are considered enough for language school work in most non-English-speaking countries. The jobs you can get with that plus experience in the US tend to be not highly paid, without benefits, and often, I think hard to come by ... I would say timing and chance have played a role when I have worked in EFL in the US, also because there are a lot of English teachers with Master's degrees in the US (and that is a higher qualification of course).

I think to teach ESL in a public school you need some kind of state certification and a certain kind of degree (not necessarily English or Education, but not just any kind as is the case for ESL).

I guess the short answer is - not exactly, though a celta or other four-week course plus experience may help qualify you for some jobs. I guess the other answer is ... a Master's degree would usually work in both

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I think to teach ESL in a public school you need some kind of state certification and a certain kind of degree (not necessarily English or Education, but not just any kind as is the case for ESL).

Yes -- you absolutely need a state certification to teach in American *public* schools. That means that you need to have at least 24 college credit units specific to the subject you plan to teach (at least for high school teachers) as part of your Bachelor's Degree and some kind of education coursework. This could be in the form of an actual degree in education, or a certification program usually consisting of at least 24 college units of education classes along with some kind of student teaching experience. Without these things, you generally cannot get state certification. This is somewhat different than it used to be because of changes brought on by No Child Left Untested Behind Legislation passed by the Bush Administration.

To teach ESL in public school, one generally needs to have their 24 hours in something like Second Language Acquisition or ESL. There is a way to get around this but only for a limited time -- one must prove that they are working on completing those units.

To teach in a private or charter school in the US, though, is another story. Depending upon the kind of private school, though, you may not need a teaching certificate at all -- but you will likely need a Master's Degree in the subject that you plan to teach. Private schools often charge such high tuitions because they have 'experts' as teachers -- in this case, an expert is someone with more education that the average public school teacher, few of whom have Master's Degrees in their subject area.

Charter schools vary from state to state, but in Arizona, at least, the criteria for teaching there seems dramatically reduced. One can have a bachelor's degree in nearly anything and teach whatever they like.

The downside of teaching in a private or charter school is that often, you will be paid much less than you would be for working in a public school. Yes, the private school has the benefit of smaller class sizes and more students who really want to learn, but the pay is often significantly less. Sure, in a charter school, you can be an expert in basket weaving and teach calculus, but for whom is that beneficial?

There are, I have to admit, a few fairly attractive "special programs" out there - provided by different TEFL schools.

However, what you will typically find in these programs is that while you may obtain a discounted, or in some cases even a "free" TEFL/TESOL certificate - you are often working (when you go to work in the program) for significantly less than the market wages you would have obtained if you had just arrived on the scene. Bottom line - you usually end up paying for the certificate one way or another.

In the end, very few things are really free - at least in the business work anyway - and TEFL is a business.

I just wrote about this on my blog!! come check er out!

but to be specific, I taught in Thailand. Getting a job there is as easy finding food under a fat mans couch. And for the most part, you don't need tefl there. If you do it in Thailand, dont have it cost more than 1,000 dollars.